New name touted for SA’s largest electorate
A renowned Aboriginal woman could be the first to have a federal electorate in SA named in her honour, in a suite of new changes proposed for SA’s election boundaries.
The electorate of Grey – which is larger than New South Wales – may be renamed O’Donoghue under new boundary changes, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) announced today.
The new name would honour renowned Aboriginal leader Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue, who died in 2024.
Her accolades included being the first Indigenous nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, being integral to negotiations that led to federal native title legislation and being the first Indigenous Australian to address the United Nations General Assembly.
The AEC’s Redistribution Committee recommended the change and said the renaming was “appropriate” due to O’Donoghue’s “strong connection to the APY Lands which are largely located in the electorate of Grey”.
The proposal was spurred by an anonymous submission to the AEC’s boundary changes consultation, which was supported by five out of nine submissions. The AEC is currently open for public consultation about the suggested changes.
Deb Edwards, O’Donoghue’s niece and head of the Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation, said the Foundation and O’Donoghue family did not make the suggestion, but were approached for approval.
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“It’s a pretty incredible honour and I thought that it was appropriate because the electorate of Grey is so huge, Lowitja had a lot to do with all of that area,” Edwards told InDaily.
“That’s her country. She was born on APY Lands, but she lived and worked up there for so long.
“It’s a good thing for the changing of the times, and women have achieved so many things, Aboriginal women have achieved so many things. Why not hold them up and say, ‘this is important to this region in particular for the work that she’s done and the things that she dedicated her life to’.”
O’Donoghue will also be honoured with a life-size statue designed by acclaimed sculptor Robert Hannaford at the Tarntanya Wama/Elder Park walkway in mid-2026. She was also the first Aboriginal person to have a building named after her at Canberra’s Australian National University last year.
The current electorate of Grey was named in 1903 for colonial explorer Sir George Grey who was governor of South Australia in 1840.
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In 1844, Grey amended a law that was known as the Aboriginal Witnesses Act to stipulate that unsworn testimony given by Indigenous Australians would be inadmissible in court.
He was also the governor in New Zealand in 1845 when war broke out between the Māori people and British settlers.
“The Redistribution Committee acknowledges the contribution Sir Grey made to establishing the colony of South Australia and that the electorate name has been in use for over 100 years,” the Committee report said.
“However, the Committee noted that Sir Grey was born and died overseas with limited connection and contribution to Australia.”
South Australia has only two federal electorates named after women and does not have any federal electorates named for an Indigenous person or word, the report said.
“While these considerations were not, in and of themselves, deciding factors, the Committee considered that honouring the significant contribution Dr O’Donoghue’s life and work made to the country, and the number of submissions advocating use of her name, provided strong reason to rename an electorate,” the report said.
The new proposed electorate of O’Donoghue would also add part of the Playford council area to its roughly 908,000 square kilometres from the neighbouring electorate of Spence.
The AEC is currently deciding on the redistribution of electoral boundaries, which would impact four per cent of South Australian voters, mostly in the electorates of Mayo and Spence.
“Both need to reduce in size due to continued population growth in some regional hubs and the urban fringe of Adelaide,” Committee Chair and Australian Electoral Commissioner, Jeff Pope said.
“Mayo, in particular, is proposed to reduce geographically but would still be a relatively large electorate that runs from the Adelaide Hills down to – and including – Kangaroo Island.”
“Redrawing the boundaries needs to ensure that all of South Australia’s federal electorates remain as equal as possible, not just now but heading into the future as well.”
Other changes include:
- The electorate of Barker would gain the eastern half of the Alexandrina council and the localities of Callington and Kanmantoo, which are currently part of Mayo
- The electorate of Boothby would cover the entire Mitcham council, moving parts of the local government area out of Mayo.
- The electorate of Kingston would gain Aldinga, Aldinga Beach, Port Willunga and Sellicks Beach from Mayo.
- The electorate of Makin would gain part of the Salisbury council area, south of the Little Para River from the electorate of Spence.
- The electorate of Mayo would gain Aberfoyle Park, Chandlers Hill and part of Happy Valley from the electorate of Kingston and lose the above areas.
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